A Blog About Food & So Much More

More About Those Cupcakes…and Tea…and Beer…

I’ve been silent again for more than a week, for which I apologize. This post is going to end up being about “life,” if you will, but first I want to mention those dark chocolate cupcakes…

I’m not sure what I’m about to say is actually a problem. These cupcakes turned out super moist and rich, although they made crumbs rather easily 😉 My friends Holly and Traci tried them a few days after I made them and both seemed to enjoy them, but we agreed their texture was a little odd. It was almost like they stuck to your mouth while you were eating them, making it more work than your average cupcake while still tasting a whole lot better than your average cupcake. None of us could put our finger on the proper adjective to describe them, though dense was suggested…

The frosting, on the other hand, was delicious. No discussion there. I got quite a few comments on how people had never seen peanut butter frosting before, and I guess it is rather unique. The unfortunate thing was that I had to take it out of the fridge and thaw it before I served the cupcakes. I guess I could have frosted them all and stored them in the fridge, but cold cupcakes didn’t really appeal to me. I’d love to make these for a party one day so I could just frost them right before I serve them.

By the way, here’s the link to the recipe : dark chocolate cupcakes . I followed it exactly. Like I said, this woman’s blog is one of my favorites…so I hope some of you explore it a little more and try out some of her awesome recipes!

Now onto the life portion of this blog!

My dad had some business associates in town this week. One flew in from China. One actually splits her time between L.A. and China. I had met her, her husband and her daughter this January when I was in town for the Rose Bowl. Awesome people!! Anyways, I’m pretty much moved back to my parents’ place until a job comes through, so I was put in charge of a Wisconsin-themed deck party last night for all of these visitors (think brats, cheese curds, pasta salad). Yesterday morning my dad called to give me one last set of instructions on what to make. He mentioned stocking up on iced tea for them.

Now, fine readers, you’ll get a glimpse into how my brain often works: in mysterious ways. I scrounged up some tea bags from my mom’s cupboards, because the real thing is far better than Lipton tea out of a can. (We’re big tea drinkers all winter, but rarely during the summer months, though we did have some plain tea. Score!) And what did this activity lead me to think of? That’s right…a summer four years ago when 2 of my roomies and I stayed in Madison for jobs. (Duh, what else?)

Iced tea brought up that memory because we drank an awful lot of it that summer. Much like this one, it was beastly hot that year, and we had no air conditioning whatsoever. Our methods to cool ourselves included visiting the library, visiting our friends who did have A/C, eating lots of ice cream sundaes (none of us cared much about diets and exercise back then), and laying around the living room with our army of box fans trying not to stick to the pleather couch while we watched every Brewers game (often theatrically). We made a lot of s’mores too, but since we used Sternos to do that, it didn’t really cool us off. And, of course, drinking cold beverages. Ali’s mom sent us boxes of cold-brew Lipton tea bags, and we pretty much always had some lemon-infused iced tea at the ready. In fact, the pitcher we brewed it in is still stained slightly brown (see, I told you my train of thought is mysterious!).

The iced tea memory brought back another highlight of that summer: it was the year the three of us finally taught ourselves to drink (and like) beer. It had become apparent to us it would be much cheaper to go out 2 or 3 nights a week if we drank something other than hard liquor. And it bugged the guys we hung out with that we were too prissy to have a beer with them. So, we bought some Miller Chill and Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat and gave it a whirl. Sigh. Miller Chill sort of disgusts me now, but I loved it that summer. I still dig the Sunset Wheat, but I remember it taking me about an hour to finish my first bottle. I didn’t know why I was forcing myself to finish a long too-warm beer I was unsure of, but I did it. And now…the darker, more bitter a beer the better. I’ve told people “Guinness isn’t dark enough for me.” Ha. I sure have grown up.

To a lot of you, this is random rambling. But to me, it’s a reminder of what amazing friends I have. Life is pretty stressful at the moment, but having these memories of such simple, happy days to look back on makes the current days a little easier. There are people who love me, and think I’m a success even if no employer has yet 😉 So to all of you out there, family or friend, I love you too. Let’s keep making these ridiculous memories for years to come!